Vinyl aficionados are a special breed. Some feel the medium is the only one that does justice to older recordings, while others enjoy listening to even newer music on actual records instead of more modern CDs or digital formats — and both groups are well-represented in the just-released list of 2011′s top-selling vinyl albums.

Proving everything old is new again, the Beatles‘ 1969 classic ‘Abbey Road’ moved 41,000 units to take the top spot for the third year in a row — but Adele, last year’s unofficial Queen of All Things Awesome, wasn’t left out of the mix. Her blockbuster album ’21′ made the cut as well.

Vinyl only accounts for about four percent of total music sales, but the format has been increasingly popular — in 2010, sales rose 14 percent over the previous year, even as music sales overall dropped by the same amount. Indie and classic rock bands tend to own most of the vinyl sales charts, with Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Metallica and Bob Dylan fans keeping those artists on many annual best-selling lists.

According to Nielsen SoundScan, here’s last year’s top ten line-up:

1. The Beatles – ‘Abbey Road’
2. Fleet Foxes – ‘Helplessness Blues’
3. Bon Iver – ‘Bon Iver’
4. Mumford & Sons – ‘Sigh No More’
5. Radiohead – ‘The King of Limbs’
6. Adele – ’21′
7. Bon Iver – ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’
8. Wilco – ‘The Whole Love’
9. The Black Keys – ‘Brothers’
10. The Black Keys – ‘El Camino’

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